Episode 99: Marion Nestle

Taste Matters

Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, in the department that she chaired from 1988 through 2003. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley. She is also Professor of Sociology at NYU and Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. On this week’s episode, Marion Nestle talks about her latest book, Eat Drink Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics, and how she uses cartoons to playfully make fun of the food system today, and transmit her message of food politics. In Eat, Drink, Vote, Nestle teams up with The Cartoonist Group syndicate to present more than 250 of her favorite cartoons on issues ranging from dietary advice to genetic engineering to childhood obesity. Using the cartoons as illustration and commentary, she engagingly summarizes some of today’s most pressing issues in food politics. While encouraging readers to vote with their forks for healthier diets, this book insists that it’s also necessary to vote with votes to make it easier for everyone to make healthier dietary choices. Thanks to our sponsor, Brooklyn Slate.

“Cartoons make people laugh. They just make the audience more comfortable about listening.” [7:30]

“If you buy something at a farmer’s market, you’re helping the farmer to survive. That’s something people can do without getting involved in political activity, but still supporting the food system as a whole.” [25:09]

— Marion Nestle on Taste Matters